When I hear the term “pot pie” I first think of flaky pastry encasing a creamy filling of savory chicken and vegetables. But around here, so near to the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch country just to the north, if you ask for “chicken pot pie” you are more likely to be served a casserole type dish with large chunks of chicken and large flat toothsome noodles as in the photo above. One of our finds at the Dutch Country Farmer’s Market in Burtonsville last week was dried pot pie noodles, so of course this meal had to follow…

This is my own take on the Dutch country style chicken pot pie — the broth is made with ginger, as well as the more usual onions, black peppercorns, and carrots (which are all removed when the broth is made) then finished simply with chervil and flour to thicken.

Combine all ingredients in large 6qt/L slow cooker set on HIGH. After 3 – 3 1/2 hours, remove chicken to clean bowl and separate meat from skin and bones, reserving meat. Line colander with clean cheesecloth, and strain broth, discarding all solids. Return broth and meat to slow cooker and set again on HIGH.

Add to slow cooker, cover and cook for 40 minutes — noodles should be softened but not falling apart. Add 1/2 cup hot broth to the dissolved flour mixture, and stir well. Make a well in the center of the noodles, and pour flour mixture into well and stir through completely. Cook another 20-30 minutes, or until broth thickens.

This is comfort food at its best. With the whole wheat loaf and fresh churned butter (also from the Market), and an ice cold Yuengling lager (in keeping with the Penn country theme), cool summer al fresco meals don’t get better than this.

Who doesn’t like fried noodles, right?! We love them all: pancit, bami goreng, chow mein — you fry it, we’ll probably eat it. But this is my hands-down favorite — Yakisoba made with Okinawa soba noodles. You’re thinking, “Those don’t look like buckwheat noodles — soba noodles are made of buckwheat.” True, in most cases “soba” refers to noodles made with at least 30% buckwheat, but Okinawan noodle manufacturers received special dispensation from the Japan soba-growers’ association to continue to use the term “Okinawa soba” (although these noodles have 0% buckwheat) because the term was so closely tied to the island group’s history and culture.

Okinawa soba is slightly yellow in color and flattened in the middle, betraying its ancestry from the Chinese egg noodle. It is also thicker and has a chewy bite that distinguishes it from the more common ramen noodles which are used to make yakisoba in other parts of Japan. Until we lived in Hawaii, I used to make yakisoba using Chinese egg noodles, ramen noodles, or even leftover spaghetti noodles. But having had access to locally made Okinawa-style soba for 3 years on Oahu I knew it was going to be painful to be without it and have to make do with other noodles again. Happily, I don’t have to yet.

In our 9 months here, we’ve found 2 Japanese grocers in the area and they both carry the same Okinawan soba made by Sun Noodles in Honolulu that we used to buy on Oahu! *and the crowd shouts with joy!* Of course, here the noodles are in the frozen section of the market instead of the chilled section as they were in Hawaii — but c’mon they got here and that’s the important thing. A slight drop in quality is expected, as the freezing and thawing leave the noodles a bit softer after cooking so they don’t have quite the chewiness of the fresh — but again I’m not complaining, just stating a fact. You can find Sun Noodles brand Okinawa Soba, as well as many other Japanese fresh, frozen and dry goods at: Maruichi, Second Floor, Talbott Center, 1049 Rockville Pike (near the point where Rt. 355 merges with Veirs Mill Road), Rockville, MD; and Daruma, 6931-E Arlington Rd., Bethesda, MD. These are both small retailers specializing in Japanese products that the larger pan-Asian markets in the area don’t usually carry. Now if I can only convince one of them to carry Hawaiian-style Portuguese sausage, too, we’ll be REALLY happy.

Of course, you could also prepare Okinawa soba as a soup, the package includes a dehydrated soup base. In truth, we make the hot noodle soup more often than the yakisoba. But sometimes you just have to get that fried noodle fix, and this is how we do it…

OKINAWA YAKISOBA
Serves 2 as an entree, more if part of a multi-course meal
(If you can’t find Okinawa soba, the best substitute are Chinese egg noodles which are much easier to find fresh or chilled around the country)

Heat wok over high heat and add oil, onions and pork. Stir fry together until onions just start to become translucent, about 2 minutes. Add cabbage, carrots and salt (and kamaboko, if using). Stir to combine and drizzle with 1 TBL. yakisoba or tonkatsu sauce, and mix well. Add mushrooms, if using, and fry together for 3 minutes.

Move all contents of wok up the sides of the wok, leaving a large space in the center. Add oil and soba noodles directly to center of wok, and stir to coat noodles with oil. Push vegetables and meats over the top of noodles, pour water over all, and cover wok for 2-3 minutes or until it stops steaming.

Add 2 TBL yakisoba or tonkatsu sauce, and using 2 wooden spoons or large chopsticks, combine noodles and vegetable mixture so that everything is evenly distributed and sauce has a chance to cook through. Taste and add salt or last TBL. of sauce as needed.

Garnish with pickled ginger and nori, as desired.

Pomai at Tasty Island has a completely different way to make Yakisoba with these same noodles — he uses the soup base that come in the package to season the fried noodles, check out his step by step pictorial on his site.

This unique noodle dish is usually an instant favorite with anyone who tries it for the first time. The slightly sweet sesame flavor is familiar enough to encourage new tasters to keep eating, despite the unusual texture of the sweet potato noodles. The noodles, called Harusame in Japanese, look like the more ubiquitous bean thread noodles, but are much thicker and retain a chewy mouthfeel even when fully cooked. When combined with slivers of tender beef, shiitake and cloud ear mushrooms, spinach or other greens (we’ve used watercress and bok choy as well), carrots, and garlic, and fried in dark toasted sesame oil, chap chae makes a wonderful and absolutely luscious dish that is equally good at room temperature as it is warm. It is perfect picnic food (maybe for next year’s Hanami?) and a welcome and “exotic” addition to any buffet.

I don’t claim this is an authentic Korean recipe. It is adapted from a recipe by Chef Ken Hom which we originally tried 11 years ago.

One caveat: If harusame noodles are refrigerated after cooking, the noodles harden and become unpalatable — but they are easily restored if you sprinkle them with water and re-heat thoroughly in microwave, preferably on 75% power for about 1 minute. You may want to stir the noodles halfway through the re-heating time and return to microwave. You can also re-fry or steam the chap chae to return the noodles to their soft and chewy goodness.

Place the dried noodles in a large bowl or non-aluminum pot with water to cover. Allow them to rehydrate for about 1 hour. Do not drain until just before cooking.

Remove shiitake from soaking water, squeeze dry and remove stem. Cut caps into thin strips — you may want to cut individual slices in half lengthwise, depending on how thick the caps are and your personal preference. (Note: If you already have Seasoned Braised Shiitake Caps, you can use them here for an especially flavorful addition to this entree)

Remove black fungus from its soaking liquid (It will have quadrupled in size!). Cut out hard center point. Julienne.

Over medium high heat, heat 2 TBL. oil in a wok or large skillet. Add garlic, sea salt to taste, and marinated beef, and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add carrots and two fungi along with Cooking Sauce, increase heat to high and stir together for another 2 minutes. Add spinach or other greens and continue stir-frying until greens just wilt, about 1 minute more. Transfer to serving plate, keeping any juices or liquid that may be in skillet.

In the same wok or skillet, without cleaning, add last 3 TBL sesame oil and 1 tsp raw sugar, and turn heat down to medium high. Add soaked and drained harusame (some water clinging to the noodles is okay, it will help the noodles cook), and stir well to coat with oil. Continue stirring and frying until the noodles start to become translucent and to soften, about 3-5 minutes.

Return stir-fried vegetables and meat to the skillet, along with all accumulated liquid in plate. Stir all ingredients through, and cook until noodles soften completely, about 4-5 minutes more. If noodles look dry, drizzle sesame oil around edges of wok and stir through. Continue stir-frying until noodles are cooked evenly through. Test for noodle doneness: texture becomes chewy and color changes from opaque to slightly transparent.

You can enjoy these noodles on their own or make it part of a multi-course meal. When we have this for dinner, I like to have a bowl of plain white rice and a side of kimchi, while T skips the rice completely (but never the kimchi).

When I have time, I really enjoy combing the aisles of grocery marts for new ingredients, and there has been quite a treasure trove of things to discover around our new home. Case in point, these dumpling-type noodles made with pumpkin that we found in a freezer at the Korean Korner in Wheaton, MD. The package pictured here comes complete with noodles, powdered soup base, dehydrated vegetables, and pepper garnish, and the soup will serve 2 people if supplemented with additional veggies in the soup, or as pictured below, with a small side dish like gyoza.

The first time we tried this, I made the soup as directed on the package. The soup broth was not so memorable, but we loved the noodles — chewy, dense and very satisfying like the dumplings in a “Chicken and Dumplings” dish we tried while on the road in Pennsylvania last November.

The noodles don’t actually taste like pumpkin or kabocha. But even without the promised flavor, the texture won us over and we now use it in place of dumpling type noodles for gravy-laden dishes. For less than $2 a package, it’s a great short-cut to toothsome dumplings, pictured here with pounded chicken breasts in a Pennsylvania Red Wine and Port Sauce.